Serco secures new European Medicines Agency ICT contract

Published: 7 Aug 2014

Serco has secured a new contract to continue providing information and communications technology (ICT) services to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), a decentralised agency of the European Union, located in London. Serco has been supporting the EMA since 2010 and this new four-year contract, which started on 1 July 2014, is valued at EUR 4.5m.

The EMA is responsible for the scientific evaluation of medicines developed by pharmaceutical companies for human and veterinary use in the European Union. Serco supports the Agency by providing ICT Service Desk services to around 1000 employees, contractors and other stakeholders based at EMA's London HQ, plus a larger stakeholder community at various locations, mainly within the European Union, which includes personnel from Member State regulatory bodies, the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare professionals, patient and consumer organisations and the general public. Each year, the Service Desk handles around 60,000 calls in relation to the various ICT applications used by these individuals.

Serco provides first line support for a wide range of off-the-shelf applications, as well as over 100 bespoke applications including EudraVigilance, a pharmacovigilance system serving over 18,000 users, and Eudralink, a secure messaging system with over 18,500 registered users. In addition, Serco is responsible for providing technical support for hardware (laptops, printers, smartphones etc.), as well as second line support for Microsoft Office applications and, for the first time under the new contract, Audio Visual (AV) equipment.

Michael Alner, Managing Director of Serco's European business said: "We are delighted with the award of another four-year contract. Our team work hard to provide the European Medicines Agency with a high quality ICT service and we very much look forward to supporting them to be able to conduct their important work for a further four years."